He quickened his pace, deliberately "leaking" a trace of his Chakra—
It was faint, but enough for a skilled tracker to pick up.
His route also began to look "hasty": he bypassed a hill pass he could have crossed easily and left half a blurred footprint by a stream.
He even "accidentally" let his Kunai clip a branch, leaving a fresh break.
He was laying a conspicuous "escape route" that pointed toward a dense conifer forest to the southeast.
And according to the information he had earlier "questioned" out of the Kumogakure kunoichi,
a twelve-man elite Kumogakure reconnaissance squad was operating there, led by a Jonin skilled in Lightning Release and swordsmanship.
"To kill with a borrowed blade, you need a good one."
Two hours later, deep in the conifer forest.
Four Root shinobi moved through the shadows like phantoms.
They wore identical animal-patterned masks and moved in perfect unison, without a sound.
"The target's trail is fresh, less than ten minutes old," said the Root shinobi codenamed "Hai" in a low voice.
"He's deliberately leading us," said the shinobi codenamed "Fu," his voice hoarse.
"The trail's too obvious, like he's afraid we'll lose him."
"Could it be a trap?" asked the shinobi codenamed "Yu."
"Doesn't seem like it. More like... he's panicking and running without thinking," mused their leader, "Shen."
"After all, he's only an eleven-year-old kid. Even if he has some unusual abilities, it's not surprising that his nerve would break the first time he saw that kind of slaughter on a truly brutal battlefield.
Lord Danzo was right. This is a good opportunity. While he's unsettled, we'll take him out and make it look like Kumogakure did it."
"Understood."
The four sped up again.
Then they emerged from the conifer forest and ran straight into a clearing.
And into the stunned gazes of twelve pairs of eyes that instantly turned murderous.
Twelve Kumogakure shinobi were resting around an extinguished campfire.
They wore standard Kumogakure combat uniforms, their Forehead Protectors gleaming. The strong smell of blood clinging to them made it clear they had recently been in a fight.
Their leader was a burly man with crossed scars on his face. His hand was already on the short sword at his back.
For one second, time seemed to freeze.
"Konoha dogs!" the scarred man roared.
"Kill!" Root leader "Shen" ordered without hesitation.
There was no room for explanation, no possibility of a misunderstanding.
On this border where the two nations were at war, an encounter meant a fight to the death.
Lightning erupted!
The scarred man's short sword crackled with dazzling lightning as he swung it straight at "Shen's" face!
"Shen" sprang back and formed Hand Seals. "Wind Release: Vacuum Wave!"
An invisible blade of wind clashed with the lightning-wreathed sword, ringing out with a shrill metallic clang.
At almost the same moment, the other three Root shinobi clashed with the Kumogakure shinobi.
Kunai collided, ninjutsu met ninjutsu, and screams, roars, and the ripping of flesh filled the forest in an instant.
The Root shinobi were stronger individually and worked well together, but the Kumogakure side had the numbers.
They also fought without fear of death, trading wounds for wounds as a matter of course.
The battle was fierce from the very start.
On a rise less than three hundred meters from the battlefield,
Uchiha Ryūha sat on a flat rock, a small alcohol burner set before him.
A kettle sat on top, the water just coming to a boil.
Unhurriedly, he put tea leaves in a portable teapot and poured in the hot water.
The fresh fragrance of tea soon filled the air, an eerie and ironic contrast to the stench of blood drifting from afar.
"Lord Ryūha, they..." Matsumoto Ryūichi lay in the grass beside him, watching the battle through binoculars. His voice sounded strained.
"Dogs fighting dogs. Entertaining, isn't it?" Ryūha poured himself a cup of tea and blew on the steam.
Haruno Kazuya swallowed. "B-but they're our comrades from Konoha..."
"Comrades?" Ryūha laughed, but there wasn't a trace of warmth in it. "If someone's watching you from behind, ready to stab you at any moment, are they really your comrade?"
The two young Genin had no answer.
"Keep watching," Ryūha said, taking a sip of tea.
"This is war. There's no absolute right or wrong. Only those who survive have the right to decide what's right."
The battle below was nearing its end.
The four Root shinobi were indeed formidable. They had killed eight Kumogakure Chunin, but at the cost of two of their own lives.
The Kumogakure leader with the scarred face was especially savage. At the final moment, he abandoned all defense.
He took a Wind Release technique head-on with his chest and drove his lightning-wreathed short sword into "Shen's" abdomen.
They killed each other.
The last severely wounded Root shinobi, "Yu," was pinned to the ground and stabbed to death with Kunai by the two surviving Kumogakure Genin.
Silence returned to the forest, leaving only bodies strewn across the ground and an overpowering stench of blood.
Ryūha set down his teacup and stood.
"It's our turn."
He led his squad into that field of slaughter.
Only two Kumogakure Genin were still alive, both on the verge of death, along with their scarred leader, whose abdomen had been pierced but who still clung to life.
"Kagetsu."
Ryūha didn't even release his Zanpakuto. Only the faintest glimmer of blue flashed in his eyes.
The world in the eyes of the three dying men quietly changed.
In their hallucination, the final scene was this: the two remaining Root shinobi, "Yu" and "Hai," roared as they charged.
They detonated Explosive Tags in a suicide attack, perishing with their enemies in a sea of flames.
Heroic, valiant, and in keeping with the classic Konoha shinobi story of "sacrificing oneself for the greater good."
Then their consciousness sank into darkness.
Ryūha walked over to "Yu's" corpse and picked up the Kunai clenched in his hand.
He added wounds to several Kumogakure corpses that looked consistent with "blast damage," then scattered fragments of Explosive Tags around them.
Finally, he picked up "Yu's" standard-issue Root short sword, stained it with blood, and carved a few words into a relatively intact tree trunk nearby:
"Of Konoha. Fought to the death."
The writing was sharp, full of resolve.
"Let's go." Ryūha tossed the short sword aside as though it were something filthy.
"This..." Fujiwara Itsuki said, looking at the carnage all around them.
"Someone will find it," Ryūha said, turning away. "A Kumogakure patrol or a Konoha search-and-rescue team.
They'll find the scene of the Root shinobi's 'heroic deaths,' taking their enemies with them.
A decent military achievement, and a few posthumous medals."
He paused, his voice as soft as a sigh:
"Lord Danzo should like this ending.
After all, his men died 'with great value.'"
The four prepared to leave.
Just then—
The short sword at Ryūha's waist—the one Hatake Sakumo had given him, engraved with the Hatake Family Crest—
began to tremble violently without warning.
It wasn't a resonance with Chakra. It was something more primal, like the trembling of a beast facing its natural enemy...
Ryūha snapped his head up and looked toward the top of a distant hill, stained blood-red by the setting sun.
A figure stood there.
Backlit, its face was impossible to make out; only its thin silhouette was visible.
A Ninja Blade was strapped to its back, and a chilling killing intent radiated from its body.
A cold voice rang out.
"Are Konoha's people this cold-blooded, too?"
Uchiha Ryūha's pupils contracted slightly.
The sun sank below the horizon.
The last rays of light stretched their silhouettes into two blades poised to collide.
Before you continue